- Letters: N/ACILPT
- Words: 60
- Points: 306
- Pangrams: 1
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The table provides clues for the roots of words in today's NY Times Spelling Bee. You're responsible for prefixes, suffixes,
tense changes, plurals, doubling consonants before suffixes, and alternate spellings of roots. An exception:
since Sam won't allow S, when the root contains an S, the clue may be for a plural or suffixed form. "Mice" for example.
If a clue isn't self-explanatory, try googling it. And if AI tries to be too helpful, try prefixing your search with "word for" or "word meaning".
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
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Table content
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| answers covered | answer's first letter | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | 5 | Yearly record book |
| 1 | A | 4 | Opposed to (prefix), NOT uncle’s wife's nickname |
| 1 | A | 5 | Childish or playful tomfoolery, usually plural |
| 1 | A | 10 | Regard as probable, expect, or predict; or be a forerunner |
| 1 | A | 4 | Opening at the end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste matter leaves the body, adj. form also means uptight |
| 1 | A | 5 | Bee-related adj. |
| 1 | A | 9 | Submit your résumé (to a college or job), or be relevant (terms & conditions may …), one who does this is a pangram |
| 1 | A | 6 | Succeed in getting, or reach; verb (… nirvana) |
| 1 | C | 5 | Artificial waterway (Erie, Suez, Panama …) |
| 1 | C | 6 | Leggy French dance |
| 1 | C | 5 | Tropical “lily” |
| 1 | C | 4 | Tilt, or “I am unable to do so” contraction; hypocritical and sanctimonious talk |
| 1 | C | 7 | Medium-length narrative music for voice & instruments, from Italian for “sung” |
| 1 | C | 7 | Mexican or Spanish bar, or the Mos Eisley bar on Tatooine in “Star Wars” |
| 1 | C | 7 | Ship commander rank (Aye, aye, …), the period of time spent in this rank is a pangram |
| 1 | C | 6 | Short feline snooze, compound |
| 1 | C | 6 | 🐱 🐈 Mint that drives felines wild, compound |
| 1 | C | 4 | Group of related (Scottish) families |
| 3 | C | 6,8,9 | Medical facility (health …) |
| 1 | I | 5 | Appropriate or suitable in the circumstances; or likely to do something, adj. (negated adverb form is a pangram) |
| 1 | I | 6 | Recite a spell or a prayer; chant or intone, verb, usually occurs in its -ation noun form |
| 1 | I | 7 | First (letter, as in J.R.R. Tolkien), verb form is a pangram |
| 1 | I | 6 | Not damaged or impaired in any way; complete (I left with my dignity …), adj. |
| 1 | L | 5 | Hawaiian porch or island |
| 1 | L | 7 | Tropical perennial flowering plant in the verbena family |
| 1 | L | 4 | Put something down |
| 1 | L | 4 | Dryer fluff |
| 1 | N | 4 | Indiaan flaat breaad |
| 1 | N | 4 | Spike that’s hammered, noun/verb |
| 1 | N | 4 | Grandma, slang; or Peter Pan dog |
| 1 | N | 5 | Latin adj. relating to place or time of birth |
| 1 | N | 6 | Swimming or floating adj. from Latin |
| 1 | N | 6 | Vitamin B3 |
| 1 | P | 4 | Sensation from an injury, noun/verb |
| 1 | P | 5 | Latex or oil-based wall coating |
| 1 | P | 5 | Lose your cool in a crisis (at the disco?) |
| 1 | P | 6 | Toasted Italian sandwich |
| 1 | P | 4 | What a dog does when it’s hot, verb; or singular of trousers, noun |
| 1 | P | 6 | Green film from aging on copper, or sheen on wood from polishing |
| 1 | P | 6 | Outdoor dining on a blanket (from a basket?), noun/verb (past tense is a pangram) |
| 1 | P | 6 | Stuffed añimal with toys & cañdy that you hit with a stick |
| 1 | P | 4 | 16 fluid oz., or typical UK beer serving |
| 1 | P | 7 | Large duck named for its hind feathers; compound; think “… the … on the donkey” kid’s party game |
| 1 | P | 6 | Fosse musical about Charlemagne’s son, or apple variety |
| 1 | P | 5 | Ordinary, unadorned, NOT a 747; adj. |
| 1 | P | 6 | Legal term for an accusation, or literary noun for a grievance; usually starts with COM– |
| 1 | P | 4 | Detailed proposal (teacher’s lesson …), noun; or prepare in advance, verb |
| 1 | P | 5 | It has leaves, roots, & flowers (potted …), noun; or place a seed in the ground, verb |
| 1 | P | 8 | Banana variety |
| 1 | P | 6 | Flexible, often has COM– prefix; anagram of legal term for an accusation, adverb form is a pangram |
| 1 | T | 9 | Action planned to achieve a specific end (negotiating …) |
| 1 | T | 5 | Smear of corruption or pollution, noun/verb |
| 2 | T | 6,6 | Brown chemical in tea & wine used to preserve leather, noun |
| 1 | T | 5 | Archaic for shade of color, seen now only in “–URE of iodine” |
| 1 | T | 4 | Shade of color, noun; or darken car windows, verb |
| 2 | T | 5,7 | Pre-Olympic god, largest Saturn moon, or industry bigwig |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It follows in Kevin Davis' footsteps. The original set of 4,500 clues came from him, and they still make up about three quarters of the current clue set.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. As logophiles, we are pretty good at putting on prefixes and suffixes, changing tense, and forming plurals (including Latin plurals!). The clues cover root words, arranged alphabetically by root word, with a count of words in the puzzle that come from each root. For example, if a puzzle includes ROAM and ROAMING, there will be a clue for ROAM and a count of 2. The root may not appear in the puzzle at all; for example, the 2021-07-23 Bee included ICED, DEICE, and DEICED. For such a puzzle, the clue would be for ICE with a word count of 3.
The Bee Roots approach involves judgement sometimes. For example, if a puzzle includes LOVE, LOVED, and LOVELY, how many roots are needed to cover them? LOVE and LOVED share the root LOVE, certainly, but LOVELY is tricky. LOVE is part of its etymology, but by now, the word means "exquisitely beautiful," which is a lot farther from the meaning of LOVE than swithcing to past tense. I'm inclined to treat LOVE and LOVELY as separate roots. You may not agree, which is fine. Another thing we logophiles share is a LOVE of arguing about words on social media.
A few words can have one meaning as a suffixed form and another as a stand-alone word. EVENING, for example. In those cases I will use the meaning that I think is more common.
One last complication, until another one pops up: a few roots have multiple spellings, for example LOLLYGAG and LALLYGAG. Depending on the day's letters, and maybe even the editor's whims, one or both could be in the puzzle's answer list. With such roots, you could see a word count of 2, even if there are no applicable prefixes or suffixes.
I will do my best to keep this site up to date and helpful (I hope). Check it out, and tweet feedback to @donswartwout Tweet to @donswartwout